"Ever After High: Diary of an Evil Queen" (subsubtitled "A Guide to Living Evilly Ever After") is a book based on the "Ever After High" property, which might be related to the "Monster High" property. The central theme of this series, which I admit I do not know much about, is that the children of fairy tale figures all go to high school together. This book is written as a diary from the viewpoint of the Evil Queen from the Snow White story, whose daughter, named "Raven" attends this high school.
I bought this at the same time as I bought "Monster High Diaries: Lagoona Blue and the Big Sea Scarecation" and luckily I also bought a variety of snack foods at the same time so hopefully the Dollar Tree clerk didn't wonder what was wrong with me.
The central plot of this book is that the Evil Queen, mother of Raven Queen, has been imprisoned in a magic mirror, and then escapes, disguising herself as a high school student to influence her daughter to join the side of "evil". The book is told in a diary format. Some of the plot points seem to be easier to follow for people who would be familiar with the series, but I managed to capture the essence of the story.
The book has one major problem. As with any story, it needs some form of conflict, and something at risk. The conflict is between the Evil Queen's evil, and her daughter, Raven Queen's, desire to be good. This is a universal story. The problem is, due to the need to make it appropriate, the Evil Queen's "evil" basically comes down to a matter of style. The book specifically says she wants Raven to wear a black dress, and not purple, because dark colors are "evil". So are storms, as she teaches the Ever After High students how to cast spells to make it rain. The most clearly "evil" thing she does is to cast a spell causing a... stubbed toe. Earlier on, she makes a manifesto for evil, arguing that:
Think about it. Evil is a big part of that "goodness" you love so much. It's based on truth, honesty, and dignity. At the end of the story, when an evil villain confesses, they tell the whole story, no lies, no embellishments.
So basically, "evil" as it is presented in this book is a mixture of fashion choices and Nietzchean glorification of the ego---as explained in a licensed book directed to middle school girls. There are two problems with this: first, from a developmental standpoint, advocating the idea that being assertive and disruptive is the same as being "evil" is probably a bad lesson for girls. Secondly, it doesn't really give us many stakes, since the conflict doesn't have any real risk for anyone involved.
As is often the case, the "supernatural" setting of the book actually makes it more easy to digest. A real setting would probably focus much more on psychological bullying, but here we are in the "comfortable" world of dragons, spiders and curses. Yes, I know I am not the
target audience, but they could have done better.